Most westerners are no longer in a situation of daily survival that allows you to forget the diseases of the soul. With time in relative comfort, we find that little background noise that reminds us that we have not resolved: the emptiness inside that sometimes we seek to be filled by external accumulation. A deep separation between "me" and "I", between us and nature. This feeling is a pain, often dull pain, sometimes violent, which is there.
We are going to practice, the way, means that we promise more or less miracles.
But what to choose?
Today, in so much information that we bathe in some confusion, we do not know exactly what to choose. We are approaching the clairvoyance to know, the art of fighting for health and to aikido to defend themselves in the street, we learn transcendental meditation for flexibility and strength to relax ... and watch television for culture !
Not knowing really what we do, we cannot go towards whatever. The teachers appear with the gurus and everyone knows how all: "horizontal" knowledge, comparable to a thin layer of jam on a sandwich which is too big, cannot respond to our questions. Everything should go fast, everything must be fast, we must transform ourselves and understand everything in a hurry to catch the other things to do ... more! quickly!
We are surprised not to be a living entity within fifteen days and that the essence of knowledge is not integrated into our soul in a month: it takes years to go in the painful condition that we seek to change, it will be the same in the other direction.
In practices that are available, we need to make our choice.
How to make a choice in what we seek? Often we are attracted by the costume, the hat or the smile of a seller of spirituality and we forget to look twice. We are seduced by the packaging, as in the supermarket, but we do not look at the label (which is a pity!).
The form obscuring the merits, the blinding brilliance of the search, we are going where television tells us to go, so we've found the method of yoga, karate, Tibetan Buddhism (thank you Richard Gere), the ' aikido, tai chi (if only people knew that it was a boxing ...) and all the other wonderful things pre chewed by the United States and regurgitated by a bulimic reflex, on Europe.
But what do we want? What do we seek? (and who are we, anyway?)
If we take the time to discuss, to seek and choose, we are moving towards what we want. It is often better to investigate and believe in yourself than to follow the advice of women's magazines. Does the body "know"? Maybe, but it still must be sure not to pay attention to a "sick" body. Our habits are fueled by our thoughts and compulsive reacton, our frustrations and our tensions, our body is no longer the relaxed entity of body/spirit and mind of our origin. We react and defend against a world we do not understand. We must return to some quietude to listen.
Without good health, mental and physical, how can we take our internal compulsions as knowledge and feel right?
An alcoholic in the morning, feels very clearly that he needs a drink ... but he must follow his desire for that?
In a by product of a very pronounced new age, we have seen many practices that seek to follow the impulses and desires, on the pretext that the body "knows" everything ... yes and no.
If the body, by practice and repeated introspections, is relaxed and the flow energy is fluid, then it must be taken very seriously. Listening to his body, in this case, is always a priority to know the actual state of the self, what we really think. In this case again, it is wiser to believe the emotions than his mind. It is possible to lie with the mind, the ego, while emotions are visceral in the body.
The idea of a practice, if it exists in a tradition, is to guide us towards a goal. This goal can be spiritual, psychological, physical or otherwise. But if we do not know the idea of the track, the need and tradition, it is difficult to engage. It is also a good reason not to engage ...
Training will always seek to develop qualities that are necessary for the purpose of the style: for example the strength of mind for combat, the heart for sport and peace of mind for the spiritual. Again, be careful not to develop qualities that are not in keeping with our practice (cardiovascular capabilities in the spiritual way depending on the spiritual peace of mind for example) if we leave the priorities of our path we lose time.
We consume the path the same as hamburgers, sometimes "organic", but we're rarely at the heart of a way. Tradition takes time and courage. We know how we're eager to "change" and how the changes make us flee. A very Taoist paradox.
The practice is too close to what we do not want to see: the difference between "who we are and the person we are looking to sell to the world."
This fictional character, which derives from our first and last name, we shape for years and we are proud of polishing presentable. This "false self" is nurtured by our mental rumination and our compulsive thoughts, "we are because we believe" (thank you to Descartes). This character, personality, (from the Latin "persona", the mask!) Is unbearable when we have to look through. In the way we go beyond, dropping the mask we are moving towards the "natural", spontaneous.
If we go to ten ways at the same time, we accumulate instead of reducing and eventually avoid with meticulous care all that can help us, we do not move our condition.
Our suffering makes us feel alive, to take a strong individuality (personality) that stands out at all, an illusion of happiness in a further strengthening of his ego, a separation.
Pushed between anxious and depressive episodes, between past and future, we continuously repeat endless cycles calmly paving pleasure / suffering endlessly.
It is obvious that peace cannot be found in this alternating disease which depletes us and makes us question the seriousness of life: must we do this for the rest of our days? Is there another way to live life to reach real peace? Yes, in a spiritual practice in an "internal alchemy" we "transmute" and "sublime" in a search of peace and silence.
It is a long process, but which bears fruit ... "if we do it, it works, if you do not it does not."
Our perception into the future, where "everything is going well", or the constant reminder of our past, where "everything was so bad, we forget the reality that time does not exist!
Our perception of time is distorted by our minds prevailing in a mad dance, a wandering in a surreal space.
We do not live in the present moments in the unconsciousness more or less deep. I repeat: you do not live and that moments are more or less unconscious, in the present, it is impossible to speculate on it. We cannot realise our unconsciousness, our present moments are moments that are "invisible" in the changing world, moments where we "disappear." A party (us) of consciousness cannot achieve everything (global consciousness).
We are always aware of our unconscious ... hummmm.
The more we are unconscious and the changes in the world will be screened in a scary future or past depression. The more we are in dissociation with us / world, the more our discomfort. The more we are in the frame of time, we are less happy.
In this denial of this, we must never be aware each moment of presence reminds us that we are separated from the union sought.
In the moment, a presence accepted, we can not be unhappy.
If this is overwhelmed by emotions or thoughts, it is not possible to be in the moment.
The practice puts us in the presence of the moment, the way we leave the time frame. The cycles can be repeated, we are moving towards a non-conscious choice.
To lay the foundation of our practice we must move in the direction of the initiation of past, rites of passages forgotten. "Laythe basis" represents in a Taoist way 300 days we enter the path. This entry is an important change in life and can cause problems. Any change causes "friction", movements which produce sensations (often unpleasant). Often we prefer to escape the way, we hide what we know, from our character and our known bad habits reassure us. We find various excuses and complaints that we will affirm our escape.
Some suffering is real defence of our ego at risk. The more we go towards a union with the changes in the world, them more our ego loses its limits, its security. But if we continue without paying too much attention to these phenomena, we will see them lose their strength to finally disappear.
The most evident after a escape is a repetition of the process: there is a new direction, a new master, a new dress and a scent of different incense. Stuck in our time cycles that are repeated again and again, leaving the reality of the moment, we are wrong in a spiritual hypocrisy and passivity disguises. Oddly, the suffering, softened by an appreciation of the ego is still there.
In knowledge of the process, the acceptance of a desire to "return", we must commit ourselves to work in one direction only. Moments of presence will densify, repeat and take root in our lives. They will gently envelop us in acceptance of this, which has nothing to do with resignation which borrows sentimentality, and we slide into the changes in the world.
This union with the movement of universal energy, the ability to go "with" and not "against", the relaxation that follows, this is the Way.
But before this result, we need to follow the exercises every day, without frills, in a discovery of enthusiasm to practice.
